I’ve been thinking about kindness lately. How it relates to our lives and how we can actively use it in business.

I was listening to Linda Burney speak the other day at the Women’s Agenda Leadership Awards. If you don’t know her, she is the first Aboriginal woman to be elected to the Australian House of Representatives and if you haven’t heard her maiden speech to Parliament you should watch it.

At the event one of the things Linda talked about was kindness. She said she wanted to bring kindness and grace to Parliament. Hang on…did I hear that right? Kindness in Parliament? A place where so much mistrust and back stabbing occurs, is that even possible?

She also spoke about love: “I want to bring the aspirations and the wishes and the love of the people of Barton to Parliament”. What politician talks about love?

She said she actively decided to focus on kindness in her life, even if it’s the smallest of things, such as helping a neighbour or smiling at a stranger.

Don’t you just love that! I certainly do. So if anyone is going to bring kindness to Parliament, I think it’s going to be Linda.

Sending love ahead

This week I was speaking to a hugely successful business woman, Lorraine Wood, who runs the only hospital of its kind in Australia – South Pacific Private – that treats addiction and mental health. One of the things she does every day is send her love ahead of her. How great is that!

When she goes into the office, she consciously sends her love to the hospital. (An amazing woman, she is 78 and recently fought to get a loan to expand the hospital.) So she thinks about love and kindness every day.

Random acts of kindness

For me, kindness is like the beauty of nature. You don’t notice unless you actively seek it out. We probably all consider ourselves kind. But do we perform acts of kindness every day? Maybe not.

While kindness is a part of my life already, I’m going to make it a priority to act on it every day both in my personal life and business. What about you? Even the smallest of things count.

Tweetable: What is the one kind thing you have done today? I want to hear about it @CatrionaPollard http://bit.ly/2e5Lx0V